Hortas comunitárias e reintegração social

uma análise das suas vantagens no sistema APAC de Sete Lagoas, Minas Gerais

Abstract

Urban agriculture has achieved significant progress in Brazil as an alternative of local development. Specifically in the municipality of Sete Lagoas, State of Minas Gerais, Brazil, it was consolidated as an international reference in urban community gardens with a 34 years history. In the same municipality, there is an Association for the Protection and Assistance of Convicted People (APAC), which presents itself as a method of recovering the individual based on economic and social reinclusion, with low rates of recidivism of crime compared to traditional systems. In this context, the present experience report had the general objective to present the contributions of the implementation of a community garden in an APAC. To do this, through a participatory qualitative research and the use of questionnaires, field diaries and photographs, it was proposed to analyze the benefits of community gardens for 30 subjects in recovering, during the 17 months of the project. The results of the research point to an extension project that served as an alternative for income generation, social and psychological advances such as strengthening social interaction, and food and nutritional diversity. These results show how the combination of these aspects has the potential to assist on the social and economic reintegration of egresses from the prison system.